Filipino Programmer | Philippines

During Golden Week, I had the opportunity to go to one of Tokyo’s largest entertainment, business, shopping wards and home to many of tallest buildings, Shinjuku. In Shinjuku’s skyscraper district lies the Metropolitan Government Office. Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office is 243 meters tall and are twin towers, the surrounding buildings contain the offices and assembly hall of the metropolitan government of Tokyo, as well as the North and South observatories found at the 45th floor of the building. These observatory decks are open to the public for free.
The Metropolitan Buildings consist of three main buildings
Tokyo Metropolitan Main Building No.1:
243 meters (797 ft) high with forty-eight stories above and three stories below ground.
Tokyo Metropolitan Main Building No.2:
163 meters (535 ft) high with thirty-four stories above and three stories below ground.
Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Building:
41 meters (135 ft) high with seven stories above and one story below ground.

The construction of this building started on April 1998 and was completed on March 1991. Area covered by land is approximately 42,940 square meters (10.6 acres). Approximate building coverage is 27,500 square meters (296,000 square feet). With a total space covered of 381,000 square meters (4,101,000 square feet).

This building is considered as the tallest building in Tokyo and 2nd to the tallest building in Japan (As far as the date of this post is concerned). This high-tech center is a vision way back 1980’s where Japan’s economic success is at its peak.Then-governor Suzuki came up with the idea of creating a new government center which would live up to Japan’s new position as a major world center. The project was equipped with a budget to match the grandness of the scheme.

Architect Kenzo Tange’s complex includes the main building with twin towers that soar almost seventy stories, a smaller scale building to the south, a large open plaza located one story below ground, and the assembly hall of the city council which faces the main towers from across the plaza. It is both futuristic and post-modern at the same time. The sheer size of the project speaks volumes about the overly bureaucratic weight of Tokyo’s government. The main structure, with its twin towers, was inspired by the gothic churches of Germany.

At the top of each tower are satellite dishes pointing in all directions. The dishes are in place in order to enable the Tokyo government to keep in touch with its more distant locations (including the far-flung pacific islands which are also under its domain) in the event of an earthquake. The building engineers were entrusted with the task of ensuring that the structure could withstand any earthquake, including the big one that is expected to hit within the next fifty years.

Visiting Schedule:
Open daily 9:30 to 23:00 (south observatory until 17:30), except December 29-31, January 2-3 and occasional inspection days. Furthermore, the north observatory is closed on the 2nd and 4th Monday and the south observatory on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month, except if a public holiday falls on the closure day, in which case the observatory is closed the following day. Admission is free.

References:
www.japan-guide.com/e/e3011.html
www.bento.com/arch/tmgo.html

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